Merryll_of_the_Stones_and_the_Dream_Merchant

Isabel Hoving’s THE DREAM MERCHANT explores how adventure leads to self discovery. Joshua generally docile in nature has a challenge thrust upon him; in which he is stuck in dream time with a few associates and he takes the initiative of being the leader of the group. Examples of this can be viewed when members ask for his guidance or what course of action must be taken for a situation. “If Jericho can’t help then there is only one solution left if you ask me” and the rest looking at him expectantly ask “what solution is that” MERRYLL OF THE STONES similarly shows how a journey can cause maturation. Megan a somewhat exuberant teenage girl has her life changed when she is in a car accident with her parents and subsequently she is the only survivor, and later moves to Wales. We can slowly see her demeanour alter throughout the story. This can be seen in the fighting scene on chapter 12 page 80-81 as contrasted to her adult conversation with Gruffyd on chapter 28 pages 243 to 247, this can be noted as a life changing affect of the journey she has gone through resulting in behavioural change. The in both novels are alike, firstly the use of second person text type allows the readers to observe the changes the characters go through as a result of their journey more clearly. Furthermore perhaps a less obvious technique employed by both writers, is that we can look at both journeys of Megan and Joshua as analogies of our journeys that we endure, for example Joshua and his group of friends attain supernatural powers throughout their journey in the dream land, this can be compared to a student in pursuit of academic achievements, in which the dream is the school and what is learned can be seen as the supernatural powers attained by the group. In addition both MERRYLL OF THE STONES and THE DREAM MERCHANT have characters presented as average teenagers so that we may relate to them and help develop a understanding with the characters, however unlike us these characters go through a magical journey however similarly they do go through a arduous journey and are at times placed outside their comfort zones. This area of study has immensely expanded my knowledge of journey. I have discovered journeys can take on different forms such as physical inner and imaginative in addition to through my prescribed text and related text I have learned that what we learn be useful for our journeys as Aristotle observed “education is the best provision for the journey to old age”